Since 2023, Samsung and ITV have gone long into the night (Saturday night, to be precise) for a multi-phase strategy that grew consideration of its Galaxy range in one of the most loyal and hard-to-shift categories: mobile phones.

A little background

Our phones are becoming so smart that it’s getting harder to explain.

Samsung may be a household name, but to truly lead the market, it has needed to close the gap between awareness and consideration, especially for its premium smartphones.

While early adopting Millennials remain loyal, the bigger challenge has been reaching beyond them, to those who struggle to grasp or appreciate the full power of Samsung’s features and products.

Our insight

Even the ‘tech-

savvy’ need tech support.

You might assume that even tech-savvy audiences don’t need assistance with the latest tech, but the inverse is true. People who like to own the latest tech are 16% more likely to need someone to show them how to use it [GB TGI].

In 2023, Samsung and Starcom set out to find trusted platforms and relatable talent that both current and new customers could connect with - to show what Samsung’s innovations could do, beyond usual product launch announcements.

A custom research study with GWI revealed that celebrity endorsements were highly influential for key growth audiences. Samsung had recently been working with ITV’s This Morning… so a refocused conversation with ITV quickly followed.

The big idea

Bring warmth and personality to a tech/stat-heavy mobile handset category, by making Samsung synonymous with ITV Saturday Nights.

Making it happen

We began in 2023 with Capture the Night, as Olly Murs and Fleur East completed Galaxy S23 Ultra camera challenges across London, ending with a 200MP image projected on Television Centre.

That summer, Fleur joined Jordan North for Big Screen Adventure: a spy-themed episodic thriller using the Galaxy ZFold5, running alongside ITV’s Saturday Night Bond season.

Building on this, we launched a single campaign platform in February 2024, when Fleur brought backstage chaos to a fictional talent show, distracted by the dazzling Galaxy S24 Ultra.

This playful concept returned for Britain’s Got Talent, where Fleur and Ashley Banjo shared Galaxy AI tools across Samsung’s range - so impressive, even the crew couldn’t ignore them.

After four partnerships in 18 months, we went further. For The Voice in October 2024, coaching duo Tom & Danny used the Galaxy S24 FE in break, engaging fans in real time.

Next on BGT, Galaxy AI on the Galaxy S25 Ultra let viewers ask questions like “Where can I learn to do acrobatics?” in response to what they’d just seen, with real-time answers from the phone.

The latest spot put the Galaxy S25 Edge on the BGT stage itself - its super-slim design inspiring an equally slimmed-down stage with space for one judge and a quarter of the orchestra.

We refined every phase: keeping what worked, dropping what didn’t, adding deeper integration as we went, each layer building on the last.

The results

• With This Morning’s partnership as a benchmark, the Saturday night focus saw brand consideration grow:

  • +8% in 2022

  • +13% in 2023/24

  • +22% in 2025
    

• Hands-on engagement also rose:

  • Model awareness: from +3% in 2022 to +9%, 6%, 12% and 9% across the Galaxy devices featured.

  • Model consideration (the hardest metric to shift): from 3% in 2022 to +7% in 2024, then +5% again in 2025.

In a space where partnerships are often one-offs, Samsung committed long-term, and reaped the rewards of smart, sustained storytelling.

Long Term Media Strategy